• 31​ 03​ 2016 •What Is Tolerance, Anyway?

Many people in Cologne find themselves alarmed and unsettled by the events of New Year’s Eve. What does it all mean? There is an urgent need to talk about the implications, and that includes us at the Academy. When somebody says “we” should be more (or less) tolerant, one immediately wonders who “we” actually are; who are the “others;” and what are the attributes used to draw such distinctions? And what is tolerance, anyway? Who tolerates whom, when and where? Does tolerance mean openness or just indifference? These and many other questions are the starting point for the stage of the OPEN FORUM: no speakers, no lectures – but instead an invitation to many small tables with unforeseen conversations.